


A Family Against Your Will

by sociallychallengednerd



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Caleb Widogast-centric, Character Study, Critmas Exchange, Found Family, Gen, Mighty Nein as Family, implied at least - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28078140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sociallychallengednerd/pseuds/sociallychallengednerd
Summary: When Caleb had moved into the dorms on campus it was so that he could be closer to classes and the library, and maybe to be closer to Veth. There had been no plan to make any other friends. Caleb had no desire to bother with something like that.Sadly, the rest of the assholes on his floor had different ideas...
Relationships: The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2020





	A Family Against Your Will

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AgentMint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMint/gifts).



When Caleb had moved into the dorms on campus it was so that he could be closer to classes and the library, and maybe to be closer to Veth. There had been no plan to make any other friends. Caleb had no desire to bother with something like that. Only the rest of the floor of his building had seemed determined to make a friend out of him no matter what Caleb had to say about it. 

It had started out with the little blue tiefling in the pink dress, her horns tied with charming little ribbons, who had sat herself down next to Caleb in the building common room one day striking up the most aggressively friendly conversation Caleb had ever been subjected to. Eventually he’d been able to extract himself from the situation and mentally marked down the common room as somewhere to never work again. He had stuck to the library and his room for studying from then on. 

Only that still hadn’t really seemed to work. One of the blue teifling’s roommate, an abrasive, aggressive woman that Caleb had little patience for, was often in the library. She had seemed to have the same inability to know when she was wanted as her friend, often sitting down right across from Caleb. He hadn't been able to figure out why for the life of him; Beauregard had pretty clearly not been fond of him back in the early days. Caleb supposed it hadn’t been too awful though. After all, she did seem to actually be doing work, and it wasn’t all together too disruptive, even if she had a habit of perching in chairs and flailing about. 

There were others too. The tall woman, who dressed in black, Yasha, he would later learn, who had a tendency to appear when Caleb was least expecting it. The towering, lanky firbolg with the pink hair that seemed to stare straight through him, and off handedly remark on deeply personal insight. 

There was also the purple tiefling roommating, who seemed to lack any concept of personal space, and delight in the discomfort they could cause throwing an arm around Caleb’s shoulders. 

One memorable night had them showing up at his dorm at 11 at night batting their lashes and asking if Caleb could open a jar for him. When Caleb had responded that he wasn’t exactly the strongest of people, and the tiefling had given him a look over before they offered that they thought Caleb’s hands ‘looked plenty capable’. They had only left after Caleb’s face had turned a truly spectacular shade of pink, with a laugh saying they would just wait for Fjord to get home. 

Fjord himself was a half orc roomating with Mollymauk and Caduceus. In the beginning Fjord had seemed like a beacon of sense of reasonability in the chaos that was their building. That had been before Fjord had shown up at his door one day with a gash in his palm steadily bleeding, his hands cupped to try to keep the blood from dripping to the carpet. 

There had been a long moment of silence as Caleb could do nothing more than stare before Fjord had offered an awkward little laugh. 

“Hey, what’s up, so I was just thinking like, wanna make a blood pact?” He held out his bloody hand with a crooked grin that began to fall as Caleb’s silence stretched on. “I’m-, ha, I’m just kidding.” Another awkward laugh. “You got a first aid kit? I can’t find where Cad put ours.”

They were all insane then. Well, Caleb couldn’t very well throw stones on that front. 

Caleb had said resignedly ushering Fjord into his apartment. “I will fetch a kit for you.” 

It hadn’t helped that Veth seemed to actually like the group. As happy as Caleb had been to see her happy, he had still wished he could go back to when it was still just them against the world. All these other people had just complicated things in his mind. But slowly, ever so slowly Caleb began to find himself less annoyed and more fond of the chaos. And somehow, at some point, when Caleb hadn’t been paying attention he’d fallen a little bit in love with every one of them. 

Now, sitting here, almost a year since he was first accosted by Jester on this same couch in the common room, Caleb couldn’t help but wonder at how much these people had changed him, how much better things were with them here. 

Veth sat on one side of him, a giant bowl of popcorn clutched in her lap, with Jester on the other side of him leaning over to steal popcorn when Veth was distracted by the movie. Beau was perched on the arm of the couch next to Yasha with Molly sitting on the floor leaning back against Yasha’s legs. They kept a running commentary going for the movie, and occasionally Beau would kick them in an effort to shut them up. It never worked, and if anything spurred them on. Cad was spread out on the loveseat, his head in Fjord’s lap with Fjord brushing a hand idly through his hair. 

It was chaotic and kind of a mess, and they would have to pick up the popcorn that Veth kept bouncing off the back of Fjord’s head later, but it was good. It was home, and this was his family, one that Caleb had never expected, and never thought he deserved, but one he now had regardless.


End file.
